To which is added, A BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF NEW HOLLAND, AND THE PRINCIPAL ISLANDS IN THE PACIFIC

AND INDIAN OCEANS.

For the Use of Schools.

BY NOAH WEBSTER, ESQ.

NEW-HAVEN, (Connecticut) PUBLISHED BY BRONSON, WALTER & co.

O. Steele & Co. Printers.

OF

USEFUL KNOWLEDGE.

yol. III.

CONTAINING * HISTORICAL AND GEOGRAPHICAL ACCOUNT OF

THE EMPIRES AND STATES IN EUROPE, ASIA and AFRICA,

WITH THEIR COLONIES.

To which is added, A BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF NEW HOLLAND, AND THE PRINCIPAL ISLANDS IN THE PACIFIC

AND INDIAN OCEANS.

For the Use of $chools.

BY NOAH WEBSTER, ESQ.

NEW-HAVEN, ( Connecticut) PUBLISHED BY BRONSON, WALTER & Co.

O. Steele & Co. Printers.

Folge Tarot. 378

DISTRICT OF CONNECTICUT, to wit:

SE it remembered, That on the twenty-third day of July, in the thirty-first year of the independence of the United States of America, Noah WEBSTER, Esq. of the said District, hath de. posited in this office the title of a book, the right whereof he claims as author, in the words following, to wit : “ELEMENTS of Useful Knowledge, vol. 111. Containing a His.

“torical and Geographical Account of the Empires and States “ in Europe, Asia, and Africa, with their Colonies. To “ which is added, a brief description of New Holland, and - the principal Islands in the Pacific and Indian Oceans. For “ the use of schools. By Noah WEBSTER, Esq.”

In conformity to the Act of the Congress of the United States, intitled “An Act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of Maps, Charts, and Books, to the Authors and Proprietors of such Copies, during the times therein mentioned."

HENRY W. EDWARDS, Clerk of the District of Connecticut.

THE first and second volumes of the Elements of Useful Knowledge, having been well received by my fellow citizens, I have compiled a third volume, which, it is presumed, will be found no less interesting than the preceding. In some respects, it may be more interesting ; as the countries here described present innumerable subjects of description, which are not found in the United States.

In this volume, as in the former, I have endeavored to render the work useful to the Student, by interweaving, with topographical description, important historical facts, which will serve to excite his curiosity, and prompt him to further inquiry. The young reader wants to know not only the position of a country, and its present state ; but the origin and progress of its settlement, its revolutions, and in short the events to which it owes its character and condition. A bare enumeration of the latitude and longitude of a place, its boundaries, magnitude and population, is by no means the most useful part of Geographical Knowledge.

To render the work as correct as possible, the best modern treatises on Geography have been consulted, with several histories and travels. In the present revolutionary state of Europe, a compiler is sometimes embarrassed by the uncertainty of the fate of kingdomsand states ; for while he is writing, a kingdom may be dismembered or annihilated, and his account of it rendered incorrect. 1 have however attempted to state the actual condition of the several states in Europe, at the commencement of the present year.

In this and the preceding volumes, the reader and student will find a brief survey of the globe, and of the nations which inhabit it. Minute details are incompatible with the design of this work; they can neither be introduced into schools, nor would they be useful, if they could. The most prominent features of the earth, and the inost interesting